To Hover or to Seek

 To Hover or Seek

Last week, I talked about how the contemporary and traditional churches are more alike than they might want to admit.  In fact, they are like the same car with slightly different trim packages.  There is one similarity that both contemporary and traditional churches share that is the most tragic and, given enough time, this trait will ruin any congregation regardless of which trim package it has.  But first a story.

Some years ago a preacher I know went to take a new ministry.  This congregation was located in a rapidly growing community.  It was small with average weekend attendance of just less than 60.  The church began to grow.  Over the course of a couple of years they outgrew their meeting space and built a large multipurpose building.  They continued to grow in their new space.  Attendance peaked at about 175 about two and half years after the new preacher arrived. 

As you might expect there were some growing pains.  When the preacher arrived decisions were made at a monthly Sunday night meeting in which anyone who wanted could come and help shape policy.  These meetings were usually made up of five couples who were the founding members.  This became unwieldy and was replaced with a church board.  When 60 people attended the church building was treated as a sort of clubhouse for members.  The preacher wanted to open the church building up for the community.  This was greeted with aggressive resistance.  One member said, “This is our building, why should they use it?”

As you might guess, conflict developed in the church. After a long and exhausting struggle the board acquiesced when the founding members said they would stay in the church if the preacher would agree to three requests, (‘ultimatum’ might be a more accurate description). 

1. Don’t change anything.

2. Preach sermons that help people feel good.

3. Don’t try to get new people just take care of the ones we’ve got.

 As the preacher was processing what was happening he confided in a friend what had transpired and the ultimatum he faced.  His friend told him, “They don’t want a preacher nor a pastor, they want a chaplain to hold their hand.”  The preacher declined the proposal and left the church.  Within a couple of years the church died and the building sold.

The real distinction between churches is not traditional vs contemporary, nor any of the other dichotomies we generally think of.  But rather hover or seek church.  One kind of church hovers over members to meet their needs, the other expects the membership to serve and seek the lost.  In 1886, a reporter from the Plain Dealer was interviewing Gilbert Starr.  Pastor Starr was leading a rapidly growing movement in the midwest.  The reporter asked, “ By what means have you carried forward your work so rapidly?”  Pastor Starr replied, ”We have no settled pastors.  Our churches are taught to take care of themselves, while nearly all our ministers work as evangelists.”

Or put another way some churches are Bo Peep Churches:

Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,

And can't tell where to find them;

Leave them alone, and they'll come home,

Bringing their tails behind them.

Other churches are good shepherd churches;

“Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses

one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost

sheep until he finds it?”